Enter your email to subscribe:

In a press release New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that he had reached a settlement with "a western New York law firm and a Capital Region attorney ending improper employment arrangements with school districts and various Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (“BOCES”)."

The release states:

“In recent months my office has uncovered long-term and systemic fraud on the public pension and benefits systems which have potentially wasted millions of taxpayer dollars,” said Attorney General Cuomo. “Lawyers representing school districts and BOCES across the state were given public benefits they were not entitled to. Some lawyers have received illegal perks for years and were improperly put on district payrolls. My office will continue to follow this investigation wherever it leads, and we will put an end to this abuse.”

It also states:

"Cuomo’s ongoing investigation of pension fraud includes reviews of employment practices at all school districts across the state and all 37 BOCES, and has expanded to include more than 4,000 local governments and special districts across New York state. The investigation has already revealed that many lawyers had remained on school districts’ or BOCES’ payrolls for such extended periods of time, or were included on the payrolls of so many school districts or BOCES simultaneously, that they accumulated substantial credits in the New York State Employees’ Retirement System."